


Ad Astra Per Aspera

by smilesofthesilvermoon



Category: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble, bway!veruca salt, mentions of bruises and eating disorders, russian!veruca salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-09 21:43:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19894804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilesofthesilvermoon/pseuds/smilesofthesilvermoon
Summary: Through hardships to the stars.





	Ad Astra Per Aspera

_Alone time._

That was something Veruca had rarely ever gotten, something she had never really wished for. 

But here she is, locked in her own bathroom, desperately wanting to get away from everyone and everything.

Slowly but surely, Veruca Salt took off her pointe shoes, the very same pair of shoes she had begged (demanded, more so) her father to buy on a chilly Siberian day about a year ago. She starts with the ribbons first, treating them with meticulous care as she begins to unravel them. She then heads for the shoe itself, taking that off as well. 

Taking off her pointe shoes was nothing new to Veruca. It was a daily occurrence for her, a daily occurence that she quickly became accustomed to.

What she saw next to her was nothing new for her. 

Several marks covered her skin, blotchy and discolored, ranging from unpleasant browns to murky yellows. Ugly. Inconvienent. _Bruises._

Dark brown eyes studied the sight right before her, completely unfazed.

She traced over the scars that adorned her feet, the very scars she had earned from her years of ballet practice, contests and showcases.

Her head drooped down, warm blonde hair hung over her face like a curtain, askewing her peripheral vision.

_Why reminisce at a time like this?_

A face immediately appeared in her mind; materializing out of thin air as if it was a carefully placed reminder for Veruca. An everlasting reminder of something. _Or someone._

For one, the face was all too familiar. She recognized it almost immediately.

Papachika.

She didn't need to question it; she knew she truly loved her father and she that love was reciprocated as well. However, a pending question suddenly entered her mind, something she'd thought she'd never have to think about in a million years.

_Did he love me back for all the right reasons? Was his love genuine?_

Pondering on such a question too long wasn't very characteristic of Veruca, in fact, she'd usually view as an inconvenience. A waste of time.

So why was she thinking of this now?

That's simply because Veruca was finally able to realize something. Something that she had grown blind to over her childhood years. 

Thoughts of nearly starving herself so she'd be able to be seen as the quintessentially perfect ballerina, thoughts of signing up for ballet classes as requested by her father, which he had only done at the time as a way to busy his daughter, a way for him not to able to put with her as much. Not to make her happy, as she one originally thought.

It all made sense now.

Veruca had been wrong all this time.

_Life was unfair._

Misguided, bratty Veruca had finally realized that the world wasn't going to work in her favor, that, simply, she was not always not going to get her way in life. She realized that although she has always gotten thus far, she can't think back to a time when she was genuinely happy over something, something that does not have any materialistic value. She deludes herself time and time again she is, but that could be farther from the truth. She thought over the fact that her cold businessman of a father, Oleg, had not shown once of genuine care and or love for as long as she'd been alive.

All she ever wanted was to be loved. To be cared about accepted.

However, of course, there's always going to be a way where Veruca's able to end up at the stars, right?

For these hardships she had faced all actually meant something, right, that they were only leading her to a greater and better place? Veruca didn't have to delude herself to answer that question. In her heart, she knew that was true.

There was practically stars in her eyes now, the same stars that decorated the universe, stars that served as glimmers of hope to countless people.

_Hope._

That's a feeling Veruca didn't feel too often. Simply because she never needed to. She never once had the urge to question anything that had gone about in her life. However, now it was quite different.

Veruca knew she would end up at the place she truly wanted to be. That she would rightfully earn a new life that she desperately deserved, a life where's treated with kindness and given the genuine love she needs. 

_Ad astra per aspera._

**Author's Note:**

> Although probably not my best work, I am still pretty happy with the way it came out. Enjoy.


End file.
